Oh my.  This was off the path from where we visited during my Nordic trip, but what a beaut, a visitor’s center whose angular concrete planes marry well with the mountains in which it nestles.

Look, no lie, you create a pool of water in a luscious landscape like this, and the ensuing bathes of steam is going to lend your project an ethereal elegance no matter what.  And when you’re in the mountains and can add low lying clouds to the mix… magical.  But even without those enhancements this elemental design of two alternating wedges does great things on its own, contrasting its pure form against the natural ruggedness while also mirroring the peaks of the surrounding mountains.  The raw concrete also marries well with the surrounding rock and even more so in winter with the snow, and the glass interrupts little of the view.  Follow those sculptural wedges and climb atop the green roof to observe far, or follow the paths to hover over the water as it melts, collects, then leaps down into the verdant gorge.

I’m smitten.  With a light touch on the outside and a dynamic interplay on the inside, it’s an expertly rendered little folly that enhances the grand valley in which it sits.  Great work, definitively on my list for next time.

The Trollstigen Visitor’s Centre by Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter